Commissioner, District 1: A rematch for incumbent Gelder and challenger Tibbs

The campaign never really stopped for the north Kitsap commissioner hopefuls who, after dueling in last year's election, have become familiar foes.

Democratic incumbent Robert Gelder, 46, has held the position since being appointed in March 2011. He ran to retain his seat in November 2011 and beat out Republican challenger Chris Tibbs by 3,231 votes. After 19 months on the job Gelder said that despite the negativity that bubbles up during election season, he's focused on the good things happening in Kitsap.

"Ultimately for me it's about service," Gelder said. "The county exists as a service to its residents, government does not exist for the sake of government. We need to have that lens and we need to move forward in that direction."

Gelder's priorities include consolidating services with other jurisdictions to find cost savings and increase efficiencies, simplifying the land-use and permitting process and supporting small business and job growth.

Tibbs' priorities are similar and include hiring an independent auditor to review the county departments to find efficiencies, consolidating services — like law and justice — and improving how the public interfaces with county departments, including restoring a five-day workweek.

It's time to elect a commissioner who's willing to make difficult decisions, Tibbs, 32, said.

"We need to find a middle-of-the-road commissioner," he said. "Maybe you won't agree with what he says, maybe you don't agree with his policies or political ideology, but you know he's going hear you out. You know he's going to do his best to honor what he says he's going to do."

Tibbs would fill that role if elected, he said.

As a small-business owner — Tibbs left his position with Bremerton-based Ootopia Coffee Roasters earlier this year to start a restaurant supply company based in Seattle — the Kitsap native said success and failure in life have prepared him for the commissioner post.

Boosting mental health services

County commissioners can raise the local sales tax one-tenth of 1 percent to fund mental health services without a public vote. Advocates say the estimated $3 million per year generated would allow for more services to people who need them most. The additional revenue would also ease the burden on local law enforcement and jail staff, who regularly interact with people with mental illness and substance abuse issues, proponents say. But county officials have resisted the tax increase so far, saying it would reduce collections for the general fund.

Tibbs also rejects this proposal. It is not the time to raise the sales tax, he said. Federal funding, which is funneled through the county to local agencies, should remain the primary funding source, he said.

"Certainly mental health is important, but I think we need to lobby and work with our state delegation to find more funding options from Olympia," Tibbs said. "We have to fund mental health the best we can, but we don't do that on the back of the county taxpayers at this time."

The county needs to be more efficient with the money it has, Tibbs said. If additional revenue is generated, it should be prioritized for law enforcement and corrections staff, he said. Tibbs suggested the county take a serious look at consolidating county and city police into a regional agency. Three of the county's five agencies — Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo and Bremerton — are looking for new chiefs.

"How many $160,000 a year police chiefs do we need in Kitsap County?," Tibbs said.

Consolidating would save money and increase efficiency, he said. A regional approach is a "no brainer" and if elected Tibbs would make it a priority, he said.

Citing the failure of the veteran and human services levy last fall, Gelder said taxpayers made it clear they didn't want property owners to shoulder the financial burden.

If the board authorized a sales tax increase, it could be seen as more equitable this time around because everyone pays sales tax, Gelder said. But he didn't commit to supporting or rejecting a proposed increase. More analysis is needed before a decision is made, he said. That should be done soon because there could be more cuts to federal funding, he said.

"I think it's definitely something that the board needs to work on and discuss," he said. "We have to have the conversation about funding for mental health, for law and justice within the confines of the latitude that that funding can be used for."

Property rights

The candidates agree personal property rights should be protected, but where Tibbs is steadfast in his belief that individual property should remain untouched by government, Gelder says property owners have some responsibility to "give up a certain amount of personal liberties for the sake of the community."

That doesn't mean government has carte blanche to do whatever it wants when it comes to zoning or regulation of property, Gelder said.

"It is incumbent on us to be cognizant of how our actions as government impact people's rights," he said.

"There needs to be a process by which people can appeal certain aspects of the comprehensive plan," Gelder said. "But the way our system is now … the community never has the opportunity to adopt a comprehensive plan and test it and see how it actually works in application. If we're constantly being sued and stalled, then you never get to put it into practice, and that's wrong."

Tibbs says the GMA doesn't work for Kitsap County. If elected he would lobby Olympia and work with the local delegation to change regulations, he said.

"Anytime we focus more on the environment and less on the people, I'm concerned," Tibbs said.

He questioned the county's participation with the Puget Sound Regional Council, a regional planning agency composed of elected officials from Snohomish, King and Pierce counties. Kitsap's commissioners give too much latitude to the PSRC and local planning agency the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council, he said.

"It's the carrot-stick philosophy," Tibbs said. "If you want money, conform to what they think regional planning should be. What works in Seattle doesn't work with Kitsap County."

Opportunity for economic development

Kitsap County is ripe for development, if done properly. The South Kitsap Industrial Area is the ideal location to grow Kitsap's manufacturing base, while the Twelve Trees industrial park in the north end is ready for tenants, the candidates said. They also agree county commissioners should play an active role in recruiting businesses to expand in these areas.

To do that Tibbs says Kitsap needs to change the way it does business.

"We have a bad reputation with businesses because far too often the focus is not on economic development but it's on green jobs or coexisting with the environment, or boutique businesses or home-based businesses," he said. "While there's merit to small business … the economy of Kitsap County can't be based on home businesses."

Instead more must be done to grow the manufacturing base, which Tibbs said is the long-term solution to sustainable growth.

"Our commissioners should be far more active in going out and asking and finding manufacturing business such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Electric Boat, any number of those business, to come to Kitsap," Tibbs said.

He faulted Gelder for working to preserve 7,000 acres of forested property owned by Pope Resources in North Kitsap, saying if the commissioner put as much time into growing manufacturing in Kitsap as he has into the Forest and Bay Project there would be more manufacturing jobs.

"We don't need 7,000 acres of timberland taken off the tax rolls for conservatory status, what we need is a Boeing," Tibbs said.

Preserving forestland for public use and other "quality of life" amenities are necessary to attract business, Gelder said. These amenities, plus existing infrastructure and zoning, will help bring jobs to Kitsap, he said. Commissioners also need to partner with economic leaders like port district commissioners, education leaders and other elected officials to sell the county to attract more business, Gelder said.

"We have the amenities that go to support a quality of life that helps businesses recruit and retain a high quality workforce," he said.

That workforce needs to be diversified, according to Gelder. The recession has shown economic development isn't just about manufacturing and light industrial, he said. He wants to see home-based business and agricultural businesses grow to help diversify the economic landscape.

If re-elected Gelder said he would continue to work to make county codes and regulations "support our reality now, and (not) an economic lens of five years ago," he said.

Parks: keep or divest?

Parks and open space are integral to providing people with a good quality of life.

Gelder and Tibbs agree people need space to play, but when revenues are tight, spending money on park maintenance isn't a priority, they said.

An inventory of park property is under way with the goal that the citizen-led parks advisory committee will vet which properties to keep and which to let go.

Gelder supports this, saying the county needs to winnow its property to match what it can support financially. It also needs to find new ways to fund park maintenance. One proposal is a forest stewardship program that would improve the health of forested properties while using the profits from the sale of timber to pay for the maintenance. Gelder supports this plan.

"On some level having forested property is easier and less costly to maintain that it would be to have a park that's full of equipment," he said.

Tibbs, who said he will always favor private land ownership over the county owning large tracts of land, said the county needs to get out of the parks business.

"If the people of Kitsap have a desire to maintain these parks, it's going to cost a little bit extra and I'd advocate moving them to a separate district," he said. "The focus of the county should not be on parks."

Instead a metropolitan park district should be created to manage the land, similar to how Bainbridge Island operates or how the Kingston Metropolitan Park District was created to support the Kingston Village Green, he said.

County commissioners need to focus on governing regulations, not parks maintenance, he said.